Stock futures up after jobless claims, ECB

Central banks in Europe keep rates unchanged

KateGibson

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Stock-market futures pointed to another day of gains for Wall Street Thursday as jobless claims illustrated ongoing economic improvement in the U.S. and signals from Europe and China were also supportive.

New applications for jobless benefits rose slightly last week, but the level of claims revealed little change over the past few months and were consistent with a modestly improving U.S. labor market.Jobless claims rise by 4,000 to 371,000.

“We see decent if unspectacular jobs growth. In Europe the recession is not worsening, Chinese growth is accelerating and in the U.S., the worst of the fiscal cliff is behind us, and the impact of tax cuts is less than what the CBO [Congressional Budget Office] initially scored, so there is the potential to lift confidence and as a result business spending,” said Mark Luschini, chief investment strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott.

Blowing out analysts’ expectations, China’s exports surged 14.1% in December from a year earlier, compared with a 2.9% gain in November. The trade surplus shot up to $31.6 billion from $19.6 billion the prior month. Read: China's exports surge, boosting trade surplus

Data points and speeches

U.S. November job openings and wholesale inventories are due for release at 10 a.m. Eastern.

A handful of Fed speeches are scheduled for Thursday as well. Among those, Kansas City Fed President Esther George will present her economic outlook to the Central Exchange in Kansas City at 1:10 p.m. Eastern and St. Louis Fed President James Bullard speaks at the Wisconsin Economic Forecast Luncheon at 2 p.m. Eastern.

Reuters

Employees work at a Nestle factory in Shanghai in this October 18, 2012 file photo.

“The speeches will be followed closely for signals on how hawkish they are. We assess both to be soft hawks,” said analysts at Danske Bank. Both are voting members of the policy-making FOMC.

In Europe, the Bank of England and European Central Bank concluded policy meetings with no change in key rates.

Europe, Asia, commodities

In overseas markets, European stocks struggled for direction on central-bank-meetings day, while Asia stocks gained after that trade data out of China. A weaker yen boosted exporters in Japan, helping the Nikkei Stock Average
NIK, +0.30%
to extend gains. Read: Asia stocks get a lift from China trade data

Crude-oil prices moved higher, with the February contract
US:CLG3
up $1, or 1% to $94.08 a barrel, also inspired by the China data.

Gold prices also moved higher, with February gold
US:GCG3
up $5.30, or 0.3%, to $1,660.80 an ounce.

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